From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Orders of magnitude (current)

Comparison of a wide range of electric currents

To help compare different orders of magnitude, the following list describes various amounts of electric current.

Factor (ampere)	Value	Item
10−19	160 zA	One electron per second
10−12	1-15 pA	Range of currents associated with single ion channels [calcium (1 pA), sodium (10-14 pA), potassium (6 pA)] as measured by patch-clamp studies of biological membranes
10−5	10 μA	Minimum current necessary to cause death (by ventricular fibrillation when applied directly across the human heart)
10−4	700 μA	Portable hearing aid (typically 1 mW at 1.4 V)
10−3	1 – 5mA	Cathode ray tube electron gun beam current
10−2	10 mA	Through the hand to foot may cause a person to freeze and be unable to let go
20 mA	Common light-emitting diode (constant current); also deadly limit for skin contact (at 120–230 V)
80 mA	Upper limit for TENS modeled for 500 Ω
10−1	150 mA	230 V AC, 22-inch/56-centimeter portable television (35 W)
166 mA	Typical 12 V motor vehicle instrument panel light
250 – 450mA	230 V AC Tungsten incandescent light bulb (60–100 W)
290 mA	120 V AC, 22-inch/56-centimeter portable television (35 W)
500 – 830mA	120 V AC Tungsten incandescent light bulb (60–100 W)
100	1 A	Current flow of 1019 elementary charges every seconds
1 A	Typical iPhone charger (5 W)
1.35 A	Tesla coil, 0.76 m high, at 200 kV and 270 kV peak
2.1 A	High power LED current (peak 2.7 A)
5 A	One typical 12 V motor vehicle headlight (typically 60 W)
9 A	230 V AC, toaster, kettle (2 kW)
101	10 or 20 A	230 V AC, Europe common domestic circuit breaker rating
15 or 20 A	120 V AC, United States, Canada and Mexico domestic circuit breaker rating
16.6 A	120 V AC, toaster, kettle (2 kW)
20 A	230 V AC, Immersion heater (4.6 kW)
24 A	12V DC, PC, High-performance graphics card (288W)
38.3 A	120 V AC, Immersion heater (4.6 kW)
102	80–160 A	Typical 12 V motor vehicle starter motor (typically 1–2 kW)
80–375 A	TIG welding arc
166 A	400 V low voltage secondary side distribution transformer with primary 12 kV; 200 kVA (up to 1000 kVA also common)
103	2 kA	10.5 kV secondary side from an electrical substation with primary 115 kV; 63 MVA
9.3 kA	2.7V, Ultracapacitor short circuit current
104	25 kA	Lorentz force can crusher pinch
30 kA	Typical lightning strike
105	100 kA	Low range of Birkeland current that creates Earth's aurorae
140 kA	"Sq" current of one daytime vortex within the ionospheric dynamo region
180 kA	Typical current used in electric arc furnace for ferroalloys
106	1 MA	High range of Birkeland current
5 MA	Flux tube between Jupiter and Io (moon)
26 MA	Sandia National Laboratories, Z machine approximate firing current since 2007
256 MA	VNIIEF laboratories (Russia) current produced in explosive flux compression generator
109	3 GA	Total current in the Sun's heliospheric current sheet
1018	3 EA	Current of 2kpc segment of 50kpc-long radio jet of the Seyfert galaxy [3C 303](3c-303)

References

[http://www.pupman.com/safety.htm pupman.com - Tesla coils safety information], 2003-03-30
[http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/crtfaq.htm#crtfrc repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu - TV and Monitor CRT (Picture Tube) Information] {{Webarchive. link. (2013-03-11 , 2008-09-24)
[http://www.debmar.com/tens/ debmar.com - Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (T.E.N.S.) unit for pain management and replacement electrodes.], read 2012-06-11
[http://www.capturedlightning.org/hot-streamer/TeslaCoils/MyPapers/modact/modact.html capturedlightning.org - Modeled and Actual Voltage and Current Waveforms within aTesla Coil], 1998-12-22
[https://archive.today/20130211121837/http://optogan.netyard.de/plain3.php?content=content/statisch/index&id=192&navlink=234&gewaehlterBereich=24&langID=4 optogan.com - OCC-N010S01A - XXXX, Optogan X10 High Power COB Family], read 2012-06-14
[https://www.westcoweld.co.uk/tig-welding-guide West Country Welding Supplies]
[http://www.pgvcl.com/tender/corporate/Tender%20no.391/CORP-137%20Technical%20Specification%20-%20200%20-500%20KVA-371.pdf pgvcl.com - Technical Specification for 200-500 kVA] {{Webarchive. link. (2012-06-17 , page 3)
(June 2025)
"Datasheet for the capacitor".
[http://www.powerlabs.org/pssecc.htm powerlabs.org - The PowerLabs Solid State Can Crusher!], 2002
"[https://www.siemens.com/global/en/home/products/energy/high-voltage/transformers/high-current-industrial-transformers.html High-current industrial transformers]", Siemens AG, accessed 2017-11-23
"Homepage {{pipe".
"About Z". Sandia National Laboratories.
(2011). "MEASUREMENT OF THE ELECTRIC CURRENT IN a KPC-SCALE JET". The Astrophysical Journal.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

orders-of-magnitude

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Orders of magnitude (current) — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report